Vehicle market seeing dramatic sale growth

Auto-makers are enjoying dramatic sales growth in the Thai market thanks to high demand for fresh new models in both the passenger car and 1-tonne pickup truck segments.

Mitsubishi and Chevrolet both announced record sales in March, reflecting the return of consumer purchasing power for new automobiles after last year’s mega flood that left the Thai auto industry idling for months.

Mitsubishi Motors Thailand reported that it sold more than 8,000 vehicles in March, consisting of the Triton (6,040, up 366 per cent) and Pajero Sport (2,538, up 165.2 per cent). Meanwhile, it also enjoyed more than 6,000 orders at the recently concluded Bangkok International Motor Show.

The company is confident that it will achieve further growth in the second quarter this year, said Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) president Nobuyuki Murahashi.

He reported continued positive market response for Mitsubishi vehicles last month.

“In March sales hit its new highest level with 8,815 vehicles, an increase of 202.3 per cent compared to the same period last year.”

According to Murahashi, Mitsubishi’s total sales volume during the first quarter of this year amounted to 23,881 vehicles, a surge of 96.8 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. He expects the total sales volume in the second quarter to continue to grow due to a large number of positive factors, especially new product launches.

 “We received a very warm welcome from customers especially for the new Mitsubishi Mirage city car which was just launched officially in March and followed by sales activity at motor show. At the 33rd Bangkok International Motor Show this year, the booking of Mitsubishi vehicles reached 6,406 units, of which 4,081 bookings or 63 per cent belongs to the Mirage,” he said.

There were 1,098 orders for the Triton at the show, followed by 974 for the Pajero Sport, 191 for the Lancer EX and 62 for the Lancer 1.6.

“And according to our production schedule, MMTh expects to start delivery of a new model to customers at the beginning of May and thereafter,” he added.

For the third time in four months, Chevrolet Sales Thailand has set a new, best-ever monthly sales record with 6,301 vehicles being driven out of its showrooms in March. This represents a 21-per-cent increase over the previous record of 5,217 vehicles set just a month ago. More significantly, this signifies a 133-per-cent year-on-year  growth over March 2011. This provided Chevrolet with a market share of 6.9 per cent in March 2012, a 138-per-cent increase compared with 2.9 per cent in March 2011.

Meanwhile, for the first quarter of 2012, Chevrolet sold 15,303 vehicles, a rise of 126 per cent compared with the same period last year. According to the American auto-maker, which is trying hard to penetrate the Japanese-dominated Thai market, Chevrolet’s strong growth is due to its line-up of strong and relevant global vehicles.

“The Colorado continued to climb the sales charts in March 2012 – retail sales totalled 3,574, representing a 38-per-cent growth over the previous month. The Cruze also continued its upward sales trend, with 841 sold, on its way to growing 11 per cent over February 2012. Healthy figures were also the order of the month for the Captiva and Aveo,” Chevrolet said in a statement.

Chevrolet’s growth also continued across the Asean region, with a regional market share of 3 per cent in March 2012, a 122-per-cent increment compared with the same month last year. In terms of sales, the auto-maker delivered 7,404 vehicles to customers across Asean, a growth of 112 per cent compared with March 2011.

General Motors Thailand/SEA and Chevrolet Sales Thailand president Martin Apfel said: “We are growing year-on-year, month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter. We will continue to launch great products, and increase the number of dealerships to support our growth. We are in every province right now with 92, plus eight under construction, and we plan to have more than 110 dealers by the end of this year.

“Due to the strength of the business, our dealers now have greater flexibility to invest, so they will be upgrading their showrooms to reflect Chevrolet’s latest, global corporate identity, providing more service bays and hiring more staff. Our largest dealer group will be launching a multi-city roadshow for the Colorado, the biggest roadshow any dealer group has ever launched here. Everyone is reinvesting, to get even more business.

 “The growth you have seen so far is fuelled by our line-up of strong vehicles, including new models like the recently launched Trailblazer. There will be more growth in the future, fuelled by even more new vehicles like the new Chevrolet Sonic,” Apfel added.

However, the Trailblazer, launched just before the motor show and priced from Bt1.059 million to Bt1.489 million, has a long way to go as bookings at the show amounted to just 200 vehicles compared to the more than 2,500 for the Pajero Sport. Both compete in the Thai PPV (pickup passenger vehicle) segment with market leader Toyota Fortuner, Isuzu Mu-7 and the Ford Everest.

“We are also growing in employment. We currently have 4,600 employees in Thailand and we are still searching for more eligible candidates to join us. We expect to have 5,200 employees in Thailand by the end of June 2012. Just like our sales, jobs are also growing at Chevrolet,” Apfel concluded.